CHAPTER EIGHT

Nate insisted they return to Chicago the next morning even though Olivia thought he should take another day or two before returning to work. When she claimed to not be feeling well, he suspected she was stalling to force him to spend a few more hours in Parkview. They finally hit the road after lunch, running into terrible traffic and finally arriving home in late afternoon.

“I can’t believe how bad the traffic was,” Olivia said as she started unpacking their bags. “I’ll take your suits to the cleaners tomorrow. Let me know if you want me to take anything else. As soon as I get this stuff put away, I’ll make us some dinner.”

She continued to focus on reorganizing their lives while Nate observed from the doorway. He wasn’t just being lazy and letting her do all the work. He was captivated by Olivia. It had started the night before when she had hosted the mourners at Loraine’s house, setting up and cleaning up the entire thing without a single complaint. Now, she was still finding small ways to take care of him and looking beautiful while doing it. In moments like these, Nate fell in love with her all over again.

He fidgeted with the small, round object in his pocket and decided not to wait for the moment he had been planning since they first started dating. If there was one thing he had learned from his line of work it was that tomorrow wasn’t guaranteed.

“Liv.” Nate’s voice sounded shaky, so he took a deep breath and tried again when she kept unpacking. “Olivia, darling, can you stop for a second?”

“These bags won’t unpack themselves,” she said, turning to him with a grin. When she saw his face, she froze, “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” He tried to smile and failed. “There’s something I need to ask you. I’ve been wanting to ask you this for a long time.”

“Okay…” She looked worried. “Should we sit down for this?”

Nate managed a smile this time. “Actually, this will be easier if you stay standing.”

“You are being very strange right now, Nate.” Her eyes narrowed at him.

“Do you remember what you said to me when I was recovering in the hospital?” he said, getting straight to the point.

She nodded. “Of course. I promised you that if you ever asked me to marry you, I would say yes.”

“Good. Remember that.” Nate took her hand in his and dropped to his knee. Olivia gasped. “I had this whole thing planned where I was going to sweep you away to a secluded beach and propose to you at sunset, but I can’t for the life of me figure out why I’ve waited so long. Olivia, I’ve known I wanted to marry you since our first night together at that party freshman year. I thought that I would never be more in love with you than the night you joined me on the couch, looking more beautiful than should have been possible. But these last few days I’ve fallen for you over and over, deeper and deeper.”

“Nate.” She stopped to wipe tears from her eyes.

“Olivia Thompson. Will you–”

Before he could finish the sentence, she dropped down in front of him and threw her arms around his neck and kissed him fiercely. He was pretty sure that counted as a yes, but he needed to know for sure.

“Liv, will you marry me?” he said, looking deep into her eyes.

“Yes,” she said, clearly and confidently. “There’s nothing I want more than to be your wife for the rest of my life.”

Nate kissed her again and then pulled the ring from his pocket. “This was my grandmother’s ring. She was married to my grandfather for 70 years and she left it to my mother when she died. My mother gave it to me the day I told her you and I were together. She said this ring was meant to be yours.”

“Oh, Nate.” Olivia’s hand was shaking when Nate slipped the ring into place. “It’s perfect.”

“I love you, Olivia,” he said, just in case it wasn’t painfully clear. “I hope every time you look at this ring, you’ll remember that.”

Olivia was crying again, presumably happy tears. Nate used his hands to dry her cheeks. She said, “Can we get married tomorrow? We can go to the court house.”

“If that’s what you want,” Nate said with a laugh. “But what’s the rush?”

“I want to be your wife,” she said simply. “Why wait? Unless you really want to handwrite dozens of invitations and spend hours picking floral arrangements.”

“Vince has made it sound awfully appealing,” Nate joked. He kissed Olivia again because he couldn’t be that close to her and not kiss her. “But I think I like your plan better.”

“We both know I’m the brains of this relationship.” She looked at the ring again. “It really is beautiful. Thank you for giving me something that was so important to your mother.”

“I just wish I would have done this while she was still alive.” Nate kissed Olivia’s hand, just over the ring. “She would have been thrilled.”

As with many of their other intimate moments, it was quickly ruined by the ringing of Nate’s phone.

“Answer it,” Olivia insisted, kissing his cheek. “I’ll finish up in here.”

Nate reluctantly stepped away to answer the phone. “Tucker.”

“Any chance you are back in town?” Vince said, skipping any normal greeting.

“Hello, Vince. You’re in luck, Liv and I just got back.” Nate could hear Olivia singing softly to herself in the other room and he smiled.

“Good. You need to meet me at the address I’m about to send you. They found another victim and this one is alive.” Vince didn’t wait for Nate to respond. He hung up and immediately sent a location to Nate.

It took some convincing, but Olivia finally agreed to tag along with Nate. Hearing that yet another woman had been found only heightened his anxiety that something bad might happen to Olivia. Until he got a better handle on the relationship between the killer and Olivia’s stalker, Nate wasn’t taking any chances. He’d rather be an overprotective boyfriend than risk her safety.

“Vince didn’t give you any details on the phone?” she asked as Nate drove to the crime scene.

“He wasn’t in a chatty mood.” Nate wasn’t surprised that they were headed to one of the wealthier neighborhoods in Chicago. All the killer’s victims had lived in nice homes with expensive locks and security systems. The killer seemed to like the challenge.

“Do you think he took this woman because I left town with you?” Olivia asked.

Nate took her hand, staring for just a beat at the diamond sparkling on her ring finger. “I don’t know, Liv. It’s possible.”

“You didn’t even get the victim’s name?”

“Vince was in a hurry.” Nate slowed his car as he approached a uniformed officer that was blocking the street. He rolled down his window and flashed his badge. “Detective Nathaniel Tucker,” he said.

“Your partner is already here. He said to send you straight through.” The cop eye Olivia. “He didn’t say you’d be bringing a guest.”

“This is Dr. Thompson. She’s a behavioral psychologist helping with the investigation,” Nate explained smoothly.

The cop continued to look at Olivia, letting his eyes linger a moment too long on her bare legs. “She’s awfully pretty for a shrink.”

“You’re awfully stupid for a cop,” Nate replied with a glare. It was comments like those that made Nate feel a constant need to apologize for his gender.

“You didn’t have to do that,” Olivia said when Nate pulled away. “I’m a big girl. I’ve dealt with much worse than that.”

“That doesn’t make me feel better,” Nate grumbled as he parked the car in front of a house covered in yellow police tape. “You have more intelligence in your pinky finger than that idiot has in his entire body.”

“And I’m prettier, too,” she said with a smirk. “Get your head back in the game, Tucker. You’ve got a job to do.”

Nate watched as she exited the car and waved to Vince. He was always amazed at how easily she recovered from the injustices life threw at her. It wasn’t the first time she had been classified as nothing more than a pretty face, despite holding a doctorate degree and having just returned from teaching at the FBI.

Vince wasn’t the only person that was surprised to see Olivia. Nearly every cop standing outside glanced in her direction. In her perfectly tailored dress pants and crisp white shirt, she looked official enough that no one asked to see credentials. She looked a little too comfortable working a crime scene. Nate wouldn’t mind if this was the last one she ever saw outside of a bad cop show.

“Liv. Good to see you’re still around,” Vince said pointedly. He might be a fan of Olivia, but that didn’t mean he was going to let her off the hook for leaving town for a few months. “Tucker, you’ve got to see this scene.”

“Is it bad?” That might explain why so many of the initial responders will milling around outside.

“Less bad, more interesting.” Vince glanced at Olivia. “The forensics team has already done a sweep, but I’ve kept everyone else out. I wanted you to see it before we let the others in. And it might be wise for Olivia to stay out here.”

Nate shook his head. “If forensics has already done their job, there’s no harm bringing her in. We could use a set of eyes from someone that isn’t as close to the case.”

“I’m not trying to step on your toes, but are you sure that’s the best idea?” Vince was obviously uncomfortable.

“This creep might somehow be connected to Liv. He’s already threatening her. She might see something that you and I would overlook.” Nate put his hand on her elbow and lead her forward.

“I think you’re going to wish that you had listened to me,” Vince muttered as he followed them inside.

At first, it looked like a normal apartment and not at all like a crime scene. Aside from the dirty smudges where fingerprints had been lifted, the main room was virtually spotless. “Looks like an Olivia room,” Nate said.

“Is she this freakishly neat, too?” Vince guessed.

“She is standing right here.” Olivia glared at both of them and lingered longer on Nate. “And she thinks there’s nothing wrong with keeping a tidy home and not leaving smelly socks all over the place.”

“One time that happened,” Nate said. “Besides, you’ve already agreed to marry me, smelly socks and all.”

Vince flinched as he glanced back and forth between them. “Wait, what? Did Tucker finally get wise and lock it down?”

“Something like that,” Olivia said with a wry smile. She flashed her ring finger at him. “Living proof that if a girl just waits patiently for twelve years, her dreams can come true.”

 

“Yeah…sorry for the delay,” Nate said sheepishly.

“Worth the wait,” she replied with a smile and a wink.

Vince groaned as he started down a long hallway. “You two are adorable, but we have a job to do. We can celebrate your pending nuptials after we find this psycho.”

“I wouldn’t write him off as a psycho yet,” Olivia advised, following Vince. “Based on the calculated nature of his attacks and the profiles of his victims, he’s likely highly intelligent and able to control his impulses most of the time.”

“Except for when he’s torturing and killing women,” Nate muttered. He appreciated Olivia’s ability to use reason when analyzing criminals, but he wasn’t about to give credit to a murderer for his senseless killings.

“I want to warn you again that what I’m about to show you is very disturbing.” Vince paused in front of an open door.

“I promise not to clutch my pearls and faint,” Olivia said dryly.

The room they stepped into was the size of a small bedroom, but it was completely devoid of furniture. Instead, the walls had been plastered with black and white photographs of women, or more specifically, parts of women’s bodies. In other circumstances, some of the shots might seem benign or even artsy– close-ups of feet, hands, knees, and elbows. Other shots were much more alarming.

“You were right. This is disturbing,” Olivia said. She squinted hard at a slightly blurry photo. “What am I even looking at in this one?”

Nate took a step closer and winced. “A body part unique to women,” he said awkwardly.

“Oh.” Olivia shook her head and stepped back. “Interesting choice of angle.”

“There’s plenty more where that came from,” Vince said as his eyes skimmed a different section of wall. “I think this guy might have a fetish.”

“Not necessarily. It could be that, but it could just as easily be his way of compensating for feelings of inadequacy around women, or even hatred of women. He’s focusing on the body part that most represents the female gender.” Olivia calmly moved around the room as she studied the other pictures from a distance.

“Why not the breasts?” Nate asked. It seemed like a pretty selective distinction for a man who hated women.

Olivia shot him a look. “I’ve seen plenty of men with breasts, haven’t you?”

“Fair point.” Nate had seen his share of man boobs in the locker room. “How do we figure out this guy’s motivation? Seems like there could be a few different things driving his actions.”

“We have to dig deeper,” she said, pausing in front of a section of photos. “These photos are different. Besides being in color, they aren’t as close. They all appear to be of the same woman and…”

“And what?” Vince pressed.

She looked right at Nate with fear in her eyes. “It’s me.”

Nate stepped behind Olivia and looked at the photos. At first, he didn’t notice anything distinguishing about the photos, but then he noticed the scar. It was the same one Olivia had just above her hip. Nate had traced that same scar with his fingertips probably a hundred times.

“How did he get this picture?” Nate said through clenched teeth. No matter how hard he tried to protect Olivia, this monster was already firmly embedded in her life.

“I swam at the gym every morning in D.C.” Olivia shuddered visibly. “He must have been there, watching me.”

“The team already came through?” Nate asked Vince, deeply bothered by the thought of Olivia’s body now being part of the collected evidence. How many people would see these photos?

Vince nodded. “Yeah. They took pictures of everything. They’ll still want to dust each picture for prints, but I don’t think they’re going to find anything. This guy isn’t dumb.”

Nate wanted to tear the photos down and rip them to shreds. His eyes scanned the body parts that now clearly belonged to Olivia and felt rage boiling in his veins. He recognized the familiar slope of her neck and the angle of her collarbone. “I’m never letting you out of my sight again,” he muttered.

“He’s taken plenty of pictures of me with you standing right there,” she reminded him. “Why would he leave these photos in here? What game is he playing?”

“That is an excellent question,” Vince said. “I think he’s trying to send a message. Maybe even taunting us.”

“I think he’s just trying to piss me off,” Nate said. He finally turned away from the pictures of Olivia. “In addition to murdering women in Chicago, he also managed to find time to stalk Liv in a completely different city.”

“You might be right.” Olivia turned to him in surprise. “He might be messing with you. Killing more women on your watch, stalking your girlfriend, leaving pictures of said girlfriend at a crime scene… Maybe all this is about you.”

Vince scoffed. “For once Nate was right to be so arrogant?”

“I’d ask who you’ve offended that would want to piss you off so badly, but I have a feeling it’s going to be a long list.” Olivia gave Nate a pointed look.

It was true. Nate wasn’t exactly good at making friends. It didn’t help that he’d built a career around locking up murderers. “I don’t know what you mean. I’m delightful.”

“You’ve had more than one person spit on you,” Vince reminded him. “You’ve made at least three dozen people cry during interviews.”

“They were guilty,” Nate protested.

“Even the children?” Vince raised a skeptical eyebrow. “If you’re done making lame excuses, we need to get to the hospital to interview the victim.”

Nate started to follow Olivia out of the room. “I’ll let you do the interviewing lest I make someone cry,” he grumbled at Vince. When he stepped into the hall, something cracked loudly and Olivia dropped to the ground. For just a second, he thought that she had been shot. But the sound hadn’t really sounded like a gunshot, more like something snapping in half.

“What the hell?” Vince said.

“Liv, what happened?” Nate crouched next to her.

“My foot.” She leaned back, revealing a gaping floorboard with her foot stuck in it. “It went right through.”

He reached down and carefully freed her leg. A large gash ran from below her calf down to her ankle. “We need to get this looked at,” he said, gently moving her foot to check if it was broken. “Does it hurt bad?”

“Just where it’s been sliced open,” she said. “Otherwise it feels great.”

“No need to be snippy,” Nate said. “I’m just trying to help.”

“By asking obvious questions?” she replied with a smile.

Vince handed Nate a handkerchief to wrap around the wound. “Trouble in paradise already? That didn’t last long.”

“We just fight to get to the makeup sex,” Olivia said, gently rotating her ankle. “Right, loverboy?”

“Alright, enough.” Vince threw up his hands and Nate smirked at Olivia. She winked at him. Of all the big and small moments they had shared, Nate most love these types of intimate exchanges. The inside jokes that only they thought were funny.

“Let’s get you to the hospital,” Nate said, putting an arm around her waist to hoist her up. “I think you’re going to need some stitches.”

Olivia groaned. “Oh, goodie. Another scar.”

“Good thing for you that I already gave you that ring or I might be having second thoughts right now.” Nate was surprised when Olivia bent back down. “What are you doing?”

“I think there’s something down there,” she said.

Nate grabbed her arm before she could reach into the hole. “Stop. Let me.”

She stepped aside and he aimed a small penlight into the hole. He always carried one with him when he was working for occasions just like this.

“Such a little MacGyver,” Olivia purred.

Nate almost made a snappy comeback, but he was startled by what his light revealed. “Vince, get Forensics back in here. We might have found a murder weapon.”